A pair of earthquakes struck Venezuela on June 24. The magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes struck less than a minute apart, killing 5,500 people, injuring 16,000, and causing a humanitarian crisis.
Aid organization ShelterBox USA is working to provide emergency housing for more than 1,600 families in the country, according to senior response manager Brian Glenn.
"The area that I'm at today, La Guira, is at the center of all the damage. There's mile after mile of high-rise buildings that are just on the ground, and are now rubble. Tens of thousands of people have been left without homes. We're just starting to scratch the surface with providing them with emergency shelter."
Glenn said even though it’s been weeks since the quakes, no one knows how many people are homeless.
"We're thinking probably well over 10,000 families — 80,000 to 100,000 people would be a lowball guess."
The weather isn’t helping recovery efforts. It’s hot, humid, and rainy. People displaced by the quakes are trying to get temporary roofs over their heads, even using small camping-style tents. Some families are sheltering with other family members or friends in homes that have been heavily damaged by the earthquakes.
ShelterBox, based in Santa Barbara, often provides tents, blankets, and cookware to those hit by disaster and crisis.
Glenn said they are working on two efforts in Venezuela. One is with Rotary International, to create a thousand emergency housing units. They're using tarps and other materials, along with emergency repair kits, to design temporary shelters.
The government has set aside land, and once they finalize the design, the plan is to construct a thousand of the units.
ShelterBox is also working on getting about 600 of its supply kits to displaced families. The kits include a traditional tent, a solar lamp, and emergency household supplies.
